Bosse & Baum brings together four new paintings titled Associated Leagues I to IV by British artist Luke Burton. The works depict a particular view of Girton College, Cambridgeshire, where Burton has recently held a year-long residency. Girton is situated between two large motorways, which can be perpetually heard as a low atmospheric hum against the relative isolation and verdant gardens that surround the college’s buildings. Burton interprets this ambient sound as inherently environmental and decorative, infusing his representation of the superhighway with a cosmic atmosphere, collapsing vast spatial distances. It is depicted as a set of ambivalent relations: magical and celebratory, formally ordered and yet also elemental, sprawling, toxic and chaotic. Below the horizon line is the tennis court that is seemingly abandoned from play and an apple orchard in full bloom, also suggestive of different ideas of excess and emptiness; connectivity and isolation. Across the four paintings, the horizon theatrically lowers gradually like a screen being pulled down until it completely disappears in the fourth painting leaving only the cosmic superhighway visible. In a time when physical movement is so restricted, the roads express dynamism with their swirls of interlacing expressionistic brush marks, an index of the hands’ movement and touch. In contrast, the tiny cars seem toy-like and static. We see headlights signalling to each other as a binary, on/off interaction, suggesting the digital platforms on which we are now so dependent – stationary, mundane, yet oddly magical light boxes for communication.

Luke Burton (b. 1983, London) studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design, BA, London (2002 – 2005) and MA at the Royal College of Art, London (2011-2013). Recent exhibitions include: Podium Sales, Picnic Gallery, London (2019); CAMEO, A-dash, Athens (2019); Out of Office, PADA, Lisbon (2019); Outlines Roughly the Size of a Suit, with Victor Seaward, Union Gallery, London (2019); P is for Portrait, Pitt Studio, Worcester Art Centre (2019); Paper Cuts, curated by Kristian Day, Saatchi Gallery, London (2018); The Lotus Eaters, Aindrea Contemporary, London (2018); Becoming Sweet New Styles Bosse & Baum, London (2018); Sweep / Landskip, Kinokino Kunstal, Stavanger, Norway (2018); Granpalazzo, Ariccia, Rome (2017); Print Department, Division of Labour, London (2017); Waves, Turf Projects, London (2017); Luke Burton is currently Artist-in-Residence as a Visiting Fellow at Girton College, Cambridge where he will have a solo exhibition in 2021. He is also showing some new work at KIAF Art Seoul, Autumn 2020

Luke Burton: Associated Leagues

Bosse & Baum X Sid Motion Gallery: Off-site